Gezicht in Amsterdam c. 1902 - 1914

This landscape was sketched with graphite by George Hendrik Breitner, showing a view of Amsterdam. Look at the open notebook and you can imagine him outside, perhaps in a cafe, quickly and intuitively capturing the world around him with a few sparse marks, as if the drawing grew organically. I can imagine the artist feeling the pressure to capture something fleeting and elusive. I love how the lines are raw and exposed. It’s a kind of controlled chaos, where buildings and boats emerge from a jumble of lines. You can see the artist grappling with perspective, trying to flatten three dimensions onto the page. It reminds me that paintings and drawings aren’t just about what they represent but are also about the process of seeing and thinking. These raw sketches always remind me that every painting starts with a gesture, a mark, an idea, which evolves through a process of constant exchange. They remind us that creativity arises from uncertainty and that art is a conversation across time.